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ANCIENT ROMAN SKULL.
PROM THE SARCOPHAGUS OP L, VOLUSIUS SECUNDUS, VIA APPIA, LATIUM.
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Cranium of L. Seeundusy Via Appia—Quarter-size.
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IT has been considered advisable, ia order to give the utmost authenticity and value to our
figures of crania, to deviate from our usual path in the case of Roman skulls, and to delineate
one, as a model and exemplar, derived from a Latin sepulchre. With this design we have selected
for the face view of our Roman series a remarkably fine and characteristic example, obtained
from the precincts of the eternal city itself, and which may vie with aH others in genuineness
and certainty of true antiquity *.
In the year 1854, during excavations which were being made on the Via Appia, at the
Villa of the Quintilii, about five modern Roman miles from the Capena Gate, a sarcophagus of
calcareous stone, or " Peperino," was found. It was covered in with tiles of the same material,
IDce the double roof of a house. In this sarcophagus was contained a skeleton, and a smaU
marble tablet, with an inscription on it.
The sides of this famous road, the " Regina viarum " of Statius, were the chosen spots for
the sepulchi-es of patrician and other families. These cemeteries may be said to have lined the
way on each side for some miles from the city. They extended for at least seven EngKsh miles.
According to the laws and customs of the Romans, it was in these vicinities that both modes of
burial were practised during the changing fashion of ages. In the early years of the RepubHc
simple interment was the prevailing mode of disposing of the dead, although incremation was
sometimes adopted. In the prohibitory law of the Twelve Tables both customs aie adduced
Ilommem mortuwm m urbe ne sepelito ne urito. Yet the highest authorities assert that the
* The cranium of L. Volusius Secuadua was presented to the writer, in 1854, by Mr. John Freeborn of Rome
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